Student Protest: A 99-Word Flash Fiction

This week over at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com) the prompt was to write a 99 word (no more, no less) story about a protest and go where the prompt led. This pedometer geek considered several scenarios before deciding on a BOTS (based on a true story) tale.

Student Protest

Julia wanted to be inducted into her school’s National Honor Society.

Each year she saw outstanding upperclassmen selected for the honor. As a junior, she watched her classmates and the seniors get chosen one by one.

The school administration and teachers were shocked when one senior refused in protest over a blatant prejudice against another student. Apparently, the seniors knew that the student was treated unfairly, making a pact to reject the honor; however, only Jerry had the strength of character to protest this injustice.

How they found out was never revealed, but it forever changed the school’s policy.

Nancy Brady, 2020

Check out all the stories about protests over at Carrot Ranch. I wonder if any of the Word Wranglers will have written about an extra hard exam, also known as a pro-test. Now, to check them out for myself.

 

BP: Haiku Dialogue (Seeing Beyond Seeing)

Weekly, the Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue column has haiku, which follows a theme, submitted from poets around the world. The newest prompts are to be based on a photo which the editor has chosen.

This first-in-a-series’s photo was that of a sunset on the water as seen through the glass shards of a window. The photo can be seen here: http://www.thehaikufoundation.org under the Haiku Dialogue tab followed by all the haiku selected for the week, a few of them with guest editor Carole MacRury’s commentary.

Here’s mine:

broken window

battered woman

shattered life

~Nancy Brady, 2020

Check out all the haiku here (www.thehaikufoundation.org). There are some truly outstanding haiku which range from hopeful to despairing and all points in between; well done to all. There is also the second photo prompt by the editor. Submissions will be accepted until Saturday, January 18, 2020 midnight, Pacific Time. The column will come out on the following Wednesday, January 22, 2020.

 

Caretaker: A 99-word Flash Fiction

This week’s prompt at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com) is to write a 99-word (no more, no less) flash fiction about a wife who is carried. Here is the my take on the prompt.

Caretaker

The woman was elderly, but he took great care of her. He stayed by her side throughout the day, only to return the following day.

Between her dementia and the cancer that was eating at her body, she was wasting away. Her mind wandered, with thoughts of long ago, memories of her childhood and that of a young wife and mother of a boy. She was barely lucid especially when he gave her the morphine to ease her pain.

Once, she carried him in her body, but now he was the one who carried her through her last days.

Nancy Brady, 2020

Now that I have posted my story, I will check out all of the others. Check out all of the writers’ stories over at http://www.carrotranch.com to see the diversity of the many word wranglers over there.

 

Blackie (BOTS): 99-Word Flash Fiction

A day late and a dollar short, this pedometer geek missed the deadline on this week’s prompt over at Carrot Ranch https://www.carrotranch.com. This week’s prompt was to use the word hutch and/or what goes into a hutch. I missed last week’s as well.

I realized I had missed this second prompt when I went to the site to enter my story a few minutes ago and noticed all of the stories about hutches. Lots of varied stories there and it is worth checking them all out, but I digress.

After writing and editing it down to the proper number of words this morning, I present it here.

Blackie (BOTS)

My son found an abandoned Easter bunny near the woods behind our home. We found a cage to house the little rabbit. Because of our cats, though, a disaster could strike, and Blackie would be gone.

Frankly, my husband didn’t want it; he convinced his employee, who raised rabbits, to take the bunny. They even had a rabbit hutch in their backyard. Now, to convince my son as he was attached to Blackie, he promised, “We’ll visit him.” With that, the rabbit had a new home. Devastated, tears trickled down Christopher’s cheeks, and he never saw the rabbit again.

Nancy Brady, 2020

While this happened a long time ago, I still remember how upset my son was. He was never much into cats when he was young; frankly, he didn’t pay much attention to them, but this poor abandoned little bunny, which was probably someone’s Easter pet that year, he quickly loved. Had he not discovered him, the rabbit would have been lunch for predators in the woods.

 

 

 

 

BP: Stardust Haiku Journal #36

This month this pedometer geek had one haiku accepted into the online journal: Stardust Haiku: Poetry With a Little Sparkle. This is the thirty-sixth issue that Valentina Ranaldi-Adams has published, and the journal just keeps getting better and better with each issue. She accepts submissions from the first to the fourteenth day of each month, selects from those submitted, and publishes each issue the last week of the month.

Here’s mine.

winter solstice

her inner darkness

lightens

~Nancy Brady, 2019

Check out all the haiku at http://www.stardusthaiku.blogspot.com

 

 

BP: Haiku Dialogue–Holiday memories

The weekly column, Haiku Dialogue, at the Haiku Foundation had the theme of holiday memories this week. Lori A, Minor, the editor, chose one of my haiku for comment, and it is as follows:

blended family

we create

new traditions

~Nancy Brady, 2019

What amazes me is that she found so much more in my haiku than what was my intention. She took it to a whole new level. Thanks, Lori. To see her comments on this as well as read all of the other haiku on the holiday theme, see https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2019/12/25/haiku-dialogue. They are worth checking out.

 

Hero: A 99-word Flash Fiction

This week’s prompt over at http://www.Carrotranch.com was to write a 99 word (no more, no less) flash fiction about a gnome and go where the prompt led. This is the pedometer geek’s take on the prompt which is tentatively titled Hero. (I must admit that I am not happy with the title so suggestions are welcomed.)

Hero

Instead of a horse, the little bearded man named Harry rode a wildebeest he had recently purchased. He had been granted an audience with the ruling monarch, who raised a sword to each of his shoulders. It was unusual to have an American granted such an honor, but his bravery warranted it. He was armed with only a utensil that sliced through the toughest meat.

The newspaper article said it the best:

Harry, a hairy gnome from Nome riding his new gnu, kneeled, and then was knighted by the king. It was said his weapon was a steak knife.

Nancy Brady, 2018

See all the flash fictions at http://www.Carrotranch.com or consider writing one.